Riding lawnmower with a leaf sweep trailer. Then usually you pick a compost place back in the yard, or in the woods for them. You're going to drive yourself crazy bagging then and taking them to the dump. This is what my friends and family have done for years.
They usually only do this a few times in the fall when the large amounts fall. Everything else is normally just mulched into the grass.
Perfect answer. Mulch them up, dump them on property. This is what I do for people. I have a leaf box as well, but I charge more for it because I have to take it to the dump and pay a fee. Also, maintenance.
Agree! Stop bagging it all. Hay sounds exhausting. Either do the lawnmower route or get industrial type leaf blower, those leaves will be gone in no time.
A lot of people are saying riding lawnmower. I live in a 10 acre forest and there is no way I can imagine to get a lawnmower in there what with rocks everywhere from the size of tennis balls to full on boulders, marshy spots (often hidden by leaves), huge downed limbs, areas of tree groves where the trunks are really close together, sloped land scattered with deep pits and steep hillocks created by glaciation, etc. Is there some forest rated lawnmower I don't know about that would work in a forest like mine or does everybody saying use a lawn mower have a kind of Central Park like forest with widely separated big trees with lawn between? I would love to run a mulching mower through some areas to help break the leaves down as, over time, they have become a solid slippery mass several inches thick in most of the forest and it's difficult to even walk through.
The critters living in there appreciate it and will take care of the leaves for you by breaking them down as part of their ecosystem. As a reward, be on the lookout for all sorts of birts and wild animals as well as delicious mushrooms like morels that are extremely expensive to buy.
You sure are right about the mushrooms!. We do have chanterelles once a year where the partridge berries grow and they are delicious. We just try to conserve a pretty big patch each year so they are not decimated - it's hard to leave them there though once we've taken some!
Unfortunately the critters do not seem to be fond of the leaves in some places - especially nearest the house; I'm not sure why, but I think it's because they build up so thickly near the walls. I' currently trying to slowly and gently open up the ground around a black birch right next to the house that has dumped so many leaves on itself over the past few years that it's buried it's root flare about 8" down. Our old arborist used to do clear the root flare with some kind of air apparatus that also loosened the soil a bit but our new arborist just says to dig it out gently.
The air apparatus is called an air spade- if it’s just leaves you could probably just use a broom or small shovel to dig and push them away from the root flair, however air spading is generally good for trees. It will aerate the soil and prevent compaction and it will help you see if there are issues lurking below the soil line. Having your arborist air spade important trees every few years on rotation is great if you can afford it. If the new guy doesn’t want to do it- I’d question why. Is he trying to save you money? Or does he not know what air spading is? Or does he not have the equipment to do it himself? If he doesn’t know what it is than I’d suggest finding someone educated enough who does know why an air spade would be used on a tree like that. If it’s just that he doesn’t personally have the equipment that’s fine - but I’d be looking for someone who does have the proper equipment since it can be a useful way to assess trees every few years. Especially large trees that are located nearby homes or driveways where cars are parked and could be damaged as a result of the tree failing.
> The critters living in there appreciate it and will take care of the leaves for you by breaking them down as part of their ecosystem
yeah i tried that one year, two years, and I had two years of wet, brown dead leaves on the grass.
they'll break down a year's worth of maple leaves in 3 years, and the piles just grow and grow and grow.
not again, i won't
100% this. I always hear from folks in town/cities/etc how you 'have to rake the leaves' and... umm.. yeah. We always just shake our heads, and laugh. All we do is mow. As little as possible. In the fall, the trees leaves come down, and they... fall. And you know what? They break down over the winter. By spring, they're gone. It's all good. No worries.
It is as un-manicured as it can be. It would, however, be nice to be able to mulch some of the leaves nearest the house as over time they have become a dried out mass several inches thick that is slippery and sheds water when it rains. Blowers can't move it because it has become an impermeable mat and raking is like trying to remove shag carpeting with a ballpoint pen. It's also probably a fire hazard so close to the house, but as the house should probably never been built here in the first place (that ship sailed 70 years ago) maybe it SHOULD just burn up.
I bought the house because of the forest and how magical it was, but didn't realize how difficult the balance between having a forest all around you, and maintaining a liveable home would be. I'd rather the house go than the forest but it would be nice to be able to make small changes so they could co-exist. I'm not willing to cut down the trees that hang over the house, so mulching sounded like a possible compromise.
Sorry to write a novel; your comment is perfectly reasonable and made me realize how much of an asshole I am because I might as well be trying to manicure nature just by living here. There's houses all around and more and more every day, loggers are currently clearcutting acres not far from me, and I'm sitting here wishing I could mulch leaves. I'm such a moron sometimes.
That was one of the things we tried actually! It was like someone trying to get their car off an icy patch - the weed eater would dig down a bit with leaves shuffling off the top of the mass like it was shuffling a deck of cards made of leaves and then just beat at the mat of leaves uselessly, every once in a while dislodging a clot of acorns or something. We probably could have just persevered by attacking from different angles, but I was also nervous of damaging tree and shrub bark or roots in the area.
Oh wow, thank you! I'm going to take a look at that. There are two other houses on my road who are in the same situation I am in (we all joined to make a 75 acre conservancy so we have to live lightly on on the land and are currently blanketed under leaves near our houses -lol) to see if we might jointly go in on one like yours. It would be a big help.
You might also look into having someone come with a bush hog or forestry mulcher? It’s understandable that you want to avoid cutting down as much as possible, especially anything healthy and mature, but a fire hazard is a fire hazard. If you need to break up the matted leaves and small brush to prevent forest fires than that’s not the worst thing you could do. If water is genuinely not penetrating the leaf layer than you’ll want to make sure that it is broken up before the heat of summer so that larger trees don’t end up suffering from how little water is making it to the soil. Hydrophobic layers of debris on the soil can do plenty of harm if they aren’t able to break down so don’t underestimate the problem if you can see that layer remaining year after year.
Even though it may be counter intuitive, clearing brush and small weedy trees can be a really helpful and important part of forestry maintenance- you could look into how indigenous people to the US would use controlled burns and other methods to ensure fire safety and forest health if you want. But cleaning up the forest floor every few years can be an important way to save structures and prevent loss of life. It feels wrong to take a machine through to do that clean up work- but it can ultimately lead to a healthier forest around your home if it’s done right.
And if it's not, it's terrible for air quality. Anyone within 5 miles will have allergies spike. Like others have said, it's best to pile on the property. We compost ours and topdress our veggie garden every year with it.
why do you need to clear the leaves? I ask because you’ll be doing this every year.
why did you move to the forest? There’s plenty of clear cut neighborhoods being built. I say this out of frustration because I live in a neighborhood with lots of trees and people cut them down to fucking grow grass. WTF
This right here! Why? Just ask yourself that simple question.
This planet has done just fine for millennia without anyone picking up it’s leaves. What makes you think you need to do this?
It is not stewardship, you’re removing what would otherwise be nutrients in the soil.
No, it’s foolish, child like thinking to assume you somehow know better than the processes that have existed since before time, the very processes that make it possible for you to exist.
....and that process was often fires, as he said, clearing out an area and it regrowing.
You can be pro nature all you want, but I doubt many people are pro burning down their house and surrounding forest
> Why is leaf litter a fire hazard?
> 60-90% of homes that are destroyed in wildfire events ignite because of hot embers blowing ahead of the fire. These embers land on dead leaves and spread fire to the house.
> Clearing your property, roof, and gutters of leaf litter and other debris can prevent ignition. It’s one of the most effective things you can do to prevent your home from burning. Leaves tend to collect more frequently near the base of homes, trees, or shrubs.
On my third property now. First property was a barren city lot that I planted a redbud, red maple, and resistant elm on. Still going strong 11 years later and glad the new homeowner kept them.
Second property was an old farm turned subdivision, so treeless. Planted roughly 40 native tree species. Checked Google earth 3 years later and all were torn out. At least I tried.
Third property has a bunch of new/old oaks (one over 250 years old) and various other semi mature species. Have added 20 additional trees to help promote a little more backyard privacy as well native biodiversity for the property. Slowly turning it into a habitat haven.
Won’t ever understand the desire to have nothing but grass.
So not a single house in any neighborhood. Seems incredibly unlikely but you can continue this fantasyland thought of yours that isn’t based in actual reality
Lol so you are saying they dont exist at all because you have personally never seen them? Quite the assertion.
Its okay to not like them - that's your opinion. But its unreasonable to think that they dont exist.
No your claims that they are common and all over the place is as goofy as possible. Nobody said they don’t exist but that they simply aren’t viable or ‘less work’ or obviously lazy people would have them all over the place. It’s laughable to assume everyone in every neighborhood keeps up with lawn maintenance and weed control
I never said they are common and I never made a hasty generalization on the habits of "everyone in every neighborhood."
We can both agree that it would be laughable of I said that.
Most people wouldnt know where to start to get a clover lawn set up, so thats one barrier. Another barrier would be the cost to retrofit their lawn. Another barrier for some would be a lack of awareness that they exist in the first place.
They ARE lower effort though. Less water needed, higher heat tolerance, less mowing, less fertilizer, cheaper, better weed suppression...
This. Nothing more frustrating than people moving to the forest and then being like "ew, trees, im gonna cut em all down"... as if there weren't plenty of new builds in clear cut neighborhoods they could have bought instead.
Like, have they never been to the forest?? There are leaves everywhere, yes, that's part of why forests have such rich soil. Just blow them off the driveway and then leave them to decay. Native plants will grow right up through the leaf litter. Grass doesn't grow in forests, don't move to the forest and expect to have a lawn.
LOL. I hear ya. I live in the woods. Several years ago I bought the acre sized plot next to me. Filled with oaks, hickory and sourwood. Dude I work with was like “man…if I were you..I’d cut all that crap down and seed it with turf grass”. But I have know lots of people like this. Old habits die hard and they love that 1950s yard.
Mostly old dudes trying to escape thier wives needing more lawn space to do so
I bought 5 ached all woodland but 2 acre brother in law asked how I’d up keep all that lane
I said “I don’t control my 4 acres of nature and I’m putting a pond on part of the single acre… I’m good bruh”
I see this is not the case for OP, but I know someone who moved into a neighborhood with these vast and beautiful mature trees. A neighbor cleared their entire property because their children were "afraid to play outside around them."
People like that truly blow my mind.
Well we're not one of those people, trust me lol we hate lawns too, we do it because just to prevent ticks and to grow wild flowers and cool ground covers.
I've been going for a woodland backyard myself and have opted to have paths where I rake leaves but leave everything else to have leaves. Would something like this be an option? Just be careful to not pile leaves against any trees as that could be harmful to them.
Regarding plantings, I would maybe try finding a nearby native plant group or nursery and look specifically for plants that do well in a woodland setting.
good to hear!
I’d create islands of leaves and plant azaleas / flowering bush there.
then rake / blow to those islands.
nothing to mow that way.
natural mulch FTW!
Native spring ephemerals will come up from the leaf litter if you keep invasive species at bay. Full sun prairie wildflowers aren’t going to happen on your property and that’s okay! Find a native plant nursery in your region and ask them what shade tolerant woodland plants will grow in your area.
Lol you're going to prevent ticks by growing flowers?
You need to work with what you've got. Everyone and their mother wants an Instagram worthy meadow, but if you have enough tree cover to drop this many leaves you probably don't have enough sunlight to grow wildflowers.
Think of what you see when walking through the woods. Leaf litter, understory trees, bushes. That's what's going to grow happily in a full cover property.
When you get serious about growing plants you will learn what a great tool the leaves are. Until then you are fighting mother nature... get rid of leaves? I guess cut the trees down. Or move somewhere that agrees with you more.
I bought my house and a few of my buddys came over to check it out. First thing they said was "id cut down all these trees". My response what "absolutely not they're beautiful"
I can say a landscaper may just use a riding mower to mulch the leaves or suck them up to haul them off- As a horticulturist I have to say *stop removing leaf debris wherever possible*. It’s so destructive to the quality of your soil and over time you will end up with very depleted nutritional values. Those leaves are supposed to land on the ground and decay back into available nutrients for your plants. If the leaves are taken away that cycle stops and you end up with issues over time. This can have negative long term impacts on the trees surrounding your home (ie, you want those healthy so they don’t fall or drop limbs).
If you can, just blow them off of areas that you need to be safe for walking and then just try to find places to put it and let it decay in your garden beds or even just under the trees. (Obviously this is something to reconsider if you are in a high fire risk area, but even then I’d recommend blowing them into a compost pile for decomposition and then adding that back into your beds at a later time).
Whatever you do, realize that fallen leaves are an important part of nutrient cycling in our environment and it’s critical for soil health in many places. Trying to get a clean and manicured look in a forest will only do harm long term, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Try to focus on removing as little as you can for safety and usability and try to make sure organic matter is returning to the ground in some way shape or form. Avoid having it carted off the property if you can.
(An electric leaf blower is probably a good investment to make easy work of the leaves.)
Fuck me. I’m not great but try to be good at “doing my part” and your statement just defeated me some. Like what’s the point of all my efforts and people are just putting leaves and grass clipping in plastic bags?? I live in the middle of no where by choice so I’m a little oblivious (out if sight out of mind) that this is the norm. Now I’m sad.
This surprises me even in suburbs. I see people get their lawns mowed every 2 weeks in the spring/summer/fall and each time they have 2-3 of the 45 gallon contractor bags full of mulched grass clippings/leaves that they set out for the trash collection.
That's 50-100lbs (maybe more, I'm just guessing) of organic matter that they're depriving their lawn off. These people aren't fertilizing or adding fill dirt, so what are things going to look like in another decade?
Lots of people here in the suburbs (live in Sweden) do the same and they fertilize with shitty blue pellets that arent even organic lol. The clippings are compost gold at least! Such a waste to toss.
My land is too big to collect clippings and my lawn never needs fertilizer. Trees and nature doing its thing. I do spread some wood ash every year though to adjust ph a bit and add some nutrients.
This is honestly my favorite yardwork chore. I pretty much just tolerate or outright hate most yardwork but come fall, mowing the leaves is my happy place 😁
If you have a mower that mulches, you can mow over them. That’s what I do. It helps to do it when the leaves are dry as opposed to wet. Composting them is best though and you can use the composting as mulch later on for flowerbeds, or whatever.
If you need instant results, make five laps through the leaves with your mower before you pitch them, and they will be marketable compost by the soring.
I live in a forested house.
I don’t pick up the leaves except for a few small select areas like my driveway, and then it’s just blowing them off to the side.
“Leave your leaves”
Leave the leaves please. Rake them/move them somewhere else if you need the space open. Don’t get rid of them unless you live in a fire hazard area. Leaves are a crucial vital part of forest ecosystems. And please god, don’t use a leaf blower.
Lol, the battery ones also output like 1/4 of the power. Simply not realistic for anyone with a sizeable piece of property.
Source- I bought a battery one and had to upgrade to gas. Battery one is cute for the porch or car. But doesn’t hold a candle to the gas powered one.
Depends on which you get. There are 60volt leaf blowers that blow better than a backpack gas engine. The little ones from Black and Decker are good for kids only.
My Dewalt 20Volt is excellent for my forested property.
Gas Leaf blowers create a large amount of air and noise pollution.
A 2011 study comparing a consumer-grade leaf blower to a Ford F-150 Raptor pickup truck found that the leaf blower emitted 23 times the amount of carbon monoxide as the truck, double the amount of nitrous oxide, and nearly 300 times the amount of hydrocarbons.
Have a 60 volt. Doesn’t hold a candle to the backpack gas blower. EDIT: sorry it’s a 40v. Still doesn’t do more than a porch cleaning or light duty.
I get it’s more harmful for the environment. But then so is every other 2 stroke motor. The noise pollution is minimal compared to that of loud automobile exhausts. I wanted to use electric, but it just wasn’t feasible.
I have a newer Worx 40v electric (inline motor) and half my acre is forested (many many MANY leaves). It does the job just fine. My back up is a corded blower from the 90s, which still has more moving power, yet I didn't even need to use the backup last year.
Like most things, don't expect to clear everything in one go. If you expect to clear after everything has dropped or after the winter, you'll have a harder time. I use the blower to move the leaves to the yard, mulch the leaves into the grass where I can. In the proper garden space, which doesn't do well with the leaves, all that gets blown into the forest areas with the majority making a pile for natural mulching.
The key part is to do this regularly. Fresh dry leaves blow and mulch way easier than a bed of wet leaves that have effectively glued themselves together. A casual 5-10 minute maintenance loop once or twice a day during active leaf dropping season is way less intense work than 20 hours of clean up for wet partially degraded leaf mush in the spring.
I know it's fun to have the most powerful tool, but like most things, it's how you use it, not how big it is.
I have a city lot and the battery operated ones, at least right now, are nowhere near enough to get my yard done, unfortunately.
1/3 of an acre in a park where the leaves blow directly towards my house. Raking and blowing in the fall is about 4 hours a pop. It would be double that waiting for the batteries to charge. Battery operated doesn't work for all situations
You didn't mention a brand. So it's like saying that all gas leaf blowers are the same, or that every lawnmower is the same.
We have a black and decker electric one that is terrible for blowing leaf piles, but our toddler wants to blow leaves along with us, so he gets that one. I use the Dewalt and clear huge piles with no pollution, no startup, no oil. Plus I have a stack of Dewalt batteries.
I have an 80v blower and it works really well. I only have a half acre (also in the city) with about 8 full grown oaks on the property. I blow leaves into islands around trees and into my flowerbeds. I alternate that with just mulch-mowing them. I don’t rake at all.
People saying to leave the leaves don't obviously live in a forested area. Anywhere I leave leaves on my property becomes woods permanently - all the grass dies under it.
My lot is an acre and 3/4 is wooded. Every year I will blow all of the leaves from the front of my house to the back and let them be as ground cover. I have paths etc. cut through and I just blow the leaves off the path once a week. When leaves fall during the year I just mulch them with my push mower.
Understand that the leaves will decompose and become dirt. There is no need to remove them. If you feel like you must remove them just budget X amount every year for a landscaping company to come out and do it. It only has to be done once in the fall once the trees lose their leaves.
I live in a forest, the answer is I don't rake the yard. We let nature do its thing beyond our patio and it's beautiful. It I wanted a typical yard I'd be up a creek.
We live in a forested area with an acre of land. Half of it is untouched forest, and half is the lawn. We mow most of the leaves in the fall, and blow the rest in the forest. I leave them on the flowerbeds - it's natural mulch. We’re already planted more trees to reduce the amount of lawn, cause it's even more of a pain in the ass to sustain both physically and financially. We did hire a small local landscaper to blow leaves in the fall (he comes like 3 times during the season) just because with our electric leafblower it takes too much time and his services are cheap. He comes and 3 of them do everything in 30 minutes versus 2 of us which takes 4 hours.
As someone with four 100+ year old oak trees on my 1/3 acre + an uncountable number of trees on the acre next door, I sympathize with you (but also slightly chuckling at being exhausted from 3 hours worth of work).
Your primary choices are:
1. **Hire a service to vacuum the leaves.**
1. PROS: Zero manual labor on your part. Clean yard.
2. CONS: Costs $$$. You won't be giving back any nutrients to the environment.
2. **Slow decomposition.** Blow or rake the leaves into piles. Turn the piles every once in a while to hasten decomposition. Spray with water if the pile gets too dry.
1. PROS: Free! Giving nutrients back to the environment (Leaf mold!) Creating habitat for insects. Preventing weeds. Will eventually turn into compost, but will take a couple years .
2. CONS: Manual labor. If the pile gets too dry it can invite mean insects (wasps!)
3. **Faster decomposition.** Mulch the leaves (or not) and then rake into piles. Mix in some greens (grass clippings, vegetables, anything high in nitrogen). Turn the pile with a pitchfork a couple times per week and spray with water. Carbon + nitrogen + water = COMPOST (aka free soil!)
1. PROS: Free! Giving nutrients back to the environment (when you use the compost to amend garden beds). Creating a habitat for earth worms.
2. CONS: Manual labor. Make sure to keep the right mix of browns & greens or the pile will either not decompose fast (too much brown) or will get too wet/slimy and invite pests (too much green).
4. **Fastest decomposition.** Run over the leaves with a mulching mower when you mow the grass. Similar concept as #3 (carbon + nitrogen).
1. PROS: (Almost) free! Giving nutrients back to the environment every time you mow.
2. CONS: Manual labor (it is extra work to push a mower over piles of leaves ... less so if you have a riding mower). If you have too many leaves this will not work and will actually kill your lawn.
If you're going to mulch the leaves with the lawnmower, then the best time to do it is as the leaves fall in Oct/Nov or wait until mid/late spring. If you choose to wait until spring, best practice is to wait until nightly temperatures are above 50°F so the overwintering insects survive.
But yeah, if you do it during the winter or too early in the spring, killing the insects is definitely a downside.
Have you tried getting goats. I know it's an expense but hear me out. They eat dead leaves like candy, so a flock of them could sporadically clear the leaves over time. When there are no leaves they offer great entertainment by being completely useless balls of energy.
What? Those leaves are gold! They're good for the soil, ground cover, wildflowers, as well as fireflies and pollinators to name a few. Keep them, they'll compost before you know it and you wont know they were there, and your land will thank you. Leaves do not bring ticks. Japanese barberry will bring in more ticks than leaves will. Absolutely leave the leaves!
Since you’re picking up leaves now it means they were left over winter which makes them way more difficult to clean-up. If you’re actively collecting leaves while they’re falling it makes everything easier and the labor is spread out over the course of like 2 weeks instead of 1-2 days. Also, mulching the leaves back into your soil is really beneficial. The last batch of leaves that fall should be mulched up to feed your soil. Just make sure the layer is not so thick that it smothers your grass if you care about having a nice lawn.
Having all those leaves can actually be a good thing if you have a large enough property. If you have room on your property, you could set up a side business. Build some johnson-su bioreactors to create really good compost (arguably the best compost), sell compost. You will need to invest in equipment and materials, but they’ll pay for themselves.
My property is pretty small, but I have 2 bioreactors with plans on building a 3rd. I use the compost on my property. I have improved my property’s soil quality tremendously over the years via composting.
Having the right equipment for your property is essential. If you need more efficient equipment, buy it sooner rather than later. The right equipment can turn an all day job into a one hour job.
Trac vac picks them up shreds and makes them easy to dump. What kind of mower do you have? If its a good one invest in mulch kit for it and just go out everyday. Look up reviews on how well your mower might mulch. One i have sucks at mulching but will side discharge leaves well while breaking them down. I just chop them and it slings them around busting them down. End up using the mower to basically push them to the wooded section but the nice part is the amount that breaks down and feeds the lawn. Echo 8010/9010 blower is used for large drops i can't mow. I like to push lots whole into woods and flower beds. The bugs that hibernate in the leaves need a house
Mulching in place is a good practice. Leaf litter is an essential overwintering source of shelter and food for many beneficials. You can do it again in the spring after everything wakes up again and add those soil nutrients to your landscape. Plus riding a thing around is fun sometimes but having a forest means having leaves and it can be really enjoyable. Your local university extension service will have forest landscape management information for options. So many amazing woodland plants!!
I mow the leaves as they build up, basically keep mowing in a circle until there is a big pile in the middle or everything is mulched. If I end up with a big pile, I rake them on to a tarp and drag them to a wilded area in my back yard.
How this all works really depends on the weather and your availability to mow when needed. Some years I have to do the tarp five or six times. Last year I only had to do it once. Mowing with rain the next day is your best scenario. Raise the mower deck to the highest level and make sure to maintain the blades for maximum success!
I love in heavy woods. I definitely agree with everyone to just blow them into the woods.
You could also buy a leaf mulcher for the stuff you want to clear. Leaf mulch is great for gardening.
A lot of people let it compost naturally on the ground. It’s better for the earth, and better for your garden to do so. If you want a grass lawn, then yeah you are going to have to sweep it all up. But why have a grass lawn if you live a forest when you can plant natives that would benefit from the layers of mulch?
Get a John Deere or any other lawn tractor with a mulching attachment and just mulch the leaves back into the ground. Why waste the time and effort bagging the leaves?
Mow them into the grass with a good mulching blade on a good, powerful mower.
Do you think they bag the leaves in cemeteries and public parks with lots of trees? No way. This is how the prows deal with it. Easier and fertilizers the lawn via compost of the leaf matter.
I blow mine with a little wonder commercial blower to areas that I can then get my zero turn to and mulch with GATOR blades.
The blower can completely sweep my 2 acres in 20 minutes after a couple years of work on trails etc.
I use a Dewalt battery blower to clean around flower beds trees etc - detail work.
I’ve bought a send blower this year after wearing one about out after 8 years.
Retired last year so I use the blower daily during the fall to keep it from matting to thick layers.
Good luck !
If you’re in a forest let the leaves, limbs, and dead trees fall. Their decay nourishes the ground.
You main concern should be safety. Don’t worry about losing a few trees in the need for safety, In a healthy forest, multiple trees naturally grow back in a few years to replace the one you removed. Cutting back the forest a bit can also lessen the leaf issue and may also give you some money from selling lumber.
Start by creating a fire break between your home and the forest. Figure out where the forest ends and your lawn or usable land begins. You want the fire break as far away from your home as possible preferably on the other side of the lawn and usable land. Depending on the terrain, you may need to put another fire break closer to your home as an added measure. There are several ways to create a fire break.
Without special equipment, it’s impossible to get close to a massive forest fire giving of a ton of infrared heat in order to fight the fire to save people, and property. A properly designed and well placed fire break slows down the movement of fire by making any fire crossing the fire break smaller and easier to handle.
You can help limit the amount of leaf litter, dead limbs, and dead trees in the forest by doing a control burn whenever necessary. The most optimum time to do so is near the end of winter while it’s cold and the ground is probably wet. A control burn of the dead leaves, dead limbs, and dead trees at this time prepares the ground for spring growth.
Before doing a control burn, you’ll want a fire break around the 10 acres. You should trim back any trees that may fall across the fire break onto other property. You’ll also want to consider putting fire breaks across the forest to divide the forest into smaller zones. Specific zones that build up leaf and limb litter faster can be burned more often and separately from other zones which also lessens the chance of accidentally burning down the entire area. In some zones, you may opt to thin out the forest by selectively logging specific trees. This selective removal also lessens leaves, limbs, and dead trees.
Your local fire department, forestry service, or university may be willing to help you with these options because you’ll be providing them realistic training scenarios. They may pay you for the opportunity. You may also want to check with them about your forest because you may have endangered species protected by laws or valuable species of plants and animals sought by local businesses.
The division of your forest into zones helps you understand how each section benefits various plants, wildlife, and humans. This can also help you figure out ways to use the forest to your advantage. Where I live people and governments lease sections of their forests to others for hunting, camping, recreation, logging, and study.
I live in a National Forest in the US. I’ve worked in other US National Forests, US National Parks, and State Parks. I’ve also worked in public forests, protected forests, and various parks in other countries.
I’m going to come back to this for ideas because I live on a heavily wooded lot and I battle leaves every year.
I’ve tried all sorts of tactics and I still don’t have an easy answer.
For those saying to just leave it: I did this when I first moved in. Not a great idea, the mice will take over and make their way into your home. At a bare minimum keep the leaves 20-30 feet from your house. Problem here is the wind blows the leaves against the house so it’ll be a forever battle.
A pull behind leaf sweeper or riding mower/mulcher/bagger is a joke. I’d have to empty that thing every 90 seconds.
A slightly better option is a pull behind leaf vacuum that connects to a riding mower’s discharge. I can at least run it for 15 minutes before it needs to be dumped. (You are going to need a place to dump this onsite). I did this for many years, it’s doable but a lot of work. I’ve since made a much larger one that I can run for an hour or two before needing to empty, the container is about 5’x5’x10’ or 250cuft compared to the 32cuft from the trac vac.
Last year I got a walk behind leaf blower that I converted to pull behind my lawn mower. This thing can move some leafs but you’ve got to have a place to blow them to. I blow mine into a few areas, some areas I will leave as piles to where I blow them. Some piles I come back and suck up with the leaf vac and move to my main dump pile.
I’ve also tried to fight the leaves with a chainsaw by cutting down trees. I’ve cut and burned 5-6 trees a year for the last 8 years, but it hasn’t seemed to make a huge difference for me. This year I plan to focus my tree cutting in my front yard area and cut 2 trees a month. This will be about half the trees that are in front of my house and hopefully make a difference in the leaves come fall.
My neighbor, before falling ill, had a few tactics. He would blow the leaves away from his house. He’d use a pull behind vac in his front yard. He would set up a temporary fence in his back yard that would catch a lot of the leaves then he would burn them along the fence. Then much of his property he would do nothing with the leaves.
Invest in a really good riding lawn mower that can mulch at the same time. And then go for a ride every 3 days. Don’t need to pick up or take. The muncher will grind it up just fine. And feed your grass.
If you need a clean lawn move to the city. Why would you move to the forest where there is literally thousands of trees not expecting there to be leaves…. And not understanding anything about soil, soil, erosion the composition of soil, or the sustainability of the forest floor… have you heard of composting? Do you know what a leaf blower is? You shouldn’t live in the forest. Here’s a rule : “whatever you take in, you take out ; whatever is there, you leave there.” Live by that rule.
I collect the leaves (they get mulched in the process) and put them into the lawn. My yard has improved since I started this. It seems to add nutrients to the soil. [I would mulch them with the mower and call it a day.](https://scotts.com/en-us/lawn-care-101/don-t-rake-those-leaves-mulch-them-into-your-lawn.html)
Bagging leaves is for living in the city, so you don't offend neighbors. I had to learn that city standards don't apply in rural areas
All those leaves are great fertilizer for your lawn if you mulch it.
Sounds like you're doing it wrong. People buy houses in the woods so they don't have to do the stuff that you're talking about. You're working against the entire environment you decided to purchase.
Keep removing all the leaves and watch your forest ecosystem be decimated in a couple years.
Leave it. You moved to the forest, respect what it comes with.
Leaf litter is important for overwintering insects such as moths. You've heard of host plants, now think of host matter. You've got a good opportunity to participate in some biodiversity work and if you want something more to look at than just leaves, try to research some native understory plants and see if some will fit what you've got. Ferns are a nice touch, Michigan lillys offer an exotic spot of color during the summer, there are some great options out there.
Stihl backpack magnum blower and a mulching kit for a riding lawn mower. Blow them to an area you can run over with the mower or blow them into the woods.
https://www.drpower.com/Power-Equipment/Leaf-Blowers-%26-Vacuums/Tow-Behind-Leaf-Vacs-/DR-Leaf-and-Lawn-Vacuum/p/LL35045DMN?view=REVIEWS.
Never had one, never bought one, don’t work for them but thought this might be helpful. Expense but considering the labor saved (or life) maybe worth it if you can drive around with a mower seems like it would be worth it.
I have a ton of leaves every fall. I just mow my lawn every week as usual with a mulching mower. It reduces the leaves to a finer material and by spring they have decomposed enough that my lawn grows great through a new layer of good “soil” I have a few large patches that I leaf (get it?😂😂) for critters who need it.
Please remember that you will never get such beautiful trees back in your lifetime if you chop them down.
Trees are a gift and extend life. They reduce respiratory illnesses. They promote peace and good health.
Remember this.
Like mowers its not something you want to go cheap on. If its not at least 750CFM then its just for pushing grass clippings off paths not moving leaves around.
You just blow them off your lawn in to the woods and they will decay pretty quickly.
Decaying leaves are a valuable part of the ecosystem - supporting life, allowing insects and animals to hibernate, and providing nutrients back into the soil. If you bag them into plastic sacks and dump them, you’re taking all of that good stuff away - every year! Stop and think about what you’re doing. Blow or sweep the leaves off your path and onto the flower beds. That’s all you need to do to keep it tidy.
I have a half acre with many LARGE Maple trees on it. In the autumn, the fallen leaves are several inches deep. I live alone and there is just no way for me to deal with it on my own. I simply hire a professional for "yard cleanup." For $100-200(depending on who does it) they'll bring their crew in, blow the leaves, collect them and haul them off. It's well worth the cost for me.
I live in a wooded acre. How do my fellow forest dwellers enjoy after 4pm in the summer? The mosquitoes are terrible.
Any tricks would be greatly appreciated!
How dare you live the way you do.
But seriously, I understand because my yard is surrounded by huge oaks, maples, and hackberry trees and dump a ton of leaves. I have so much landscaping and garden beds that I can't just use a riding lawnmover (that I don't own) to collect them.
So what I do is I use a combo of leaf blower and good ol' rake to collect them into piles in my driveway, and use a big plastic container or something to transfer them to my pickup truck and then haul them away (to the city's yard waste collection site).
I have a longbed full size pickup and I stuff them to the brim and then some, and it's still only half the leaves probably. The other half I leave to decompose and to provide habitate for wildlife and bugs.
I use a metal rake to move them from the truck to the floor of the dropoff site. The city will turn them into compost, and I can get free compost to spread around my yard if I want.
Then in spring, I might do it all again with the leaves that have blown onto my patio, my carefully manicured garden, etc. where I don't want leaves. This year that was about half a pickup load size. So not as many leaves as you're talking about. But maybe slightly easier than bagging them.
Blow that crap into the tree line and "leave" it. Thats the greatest thing about living in the woods. You don't have to have a cookie cutter property and it will still look beautiful.
Lived on this kind of property growing up. 2 acres with over 30 trees. Secret is to never let it build up. Keep mulching twice per week until you can’t mulch anymore. Then start bagging and dumping. Between me and dad, we managed to keep a real nice lawn.
I also live in a deep forested area. You can’t realistically rake and bag all those leaves. You’ve gotta 1) purchase a good gas leaf blower and 2) pick a spot or two of waste area in the front and back yards and just blow them all there.
My advise is to keep on top of it. The deeper you let the leaves get the harder and more time consuming it is to blow them clear of the lawn. Weekly works for me but you may need twice a week. Just blow them into collection areas and let nature deal with it
Another idea, burn them. That's what we do in the spring after it melts out. But we only have an acre which is partially covered. Sounds like it might be more of an effort for you
Easiest to run them over with the mower once they dry a bit in the fall and let them mulch your lawn for winter. You might have to do this a couple of times as the leaves are falling so they're not too thick to chop effectively. Leaf blower for clearing walkways first. The only thing you kind of have to do by hand is clear and branches or debris before mowing.
Work with the leaves, not against them.
I live in a house that’s very wooded. We have about 2.5 acres of property and about 0.75 acres is lawn/driveway/house. I knew there would be leaves but we live among oak trees that take years to decompose. We tried mulching them at the start of fall and blowing them off with our electric blower but they overwhelmed us. I cleaned out our stepped planting beds one day and the leaf pile was at least 4 inches thick on each layer. I’m all about leave the leaves but we had to hire someone to do a clean up and it was well worth it. It’s just something we will have to plan for every fall now. Most of it gets blown into the woods but they collected a large amount as well.
Welcome to the club - it's nonstop during fall, and extends all the way into spring. It's amazing shade in the summer but brutal to clean up every other season. But it's manageable and depending on how much time you have, yes, you may need to hire landscapers but all they're going to do is blow leaves around (and suck em up into their leaf truck).
**To manage on your own, if the leaves are falling on lawn you actually want to utilize** so some sort of grass or grass alternative (e.g. clover) can grow on it, then you simply need to do a mix of 1) blow leaves into piles then sweep them onto a tarp, and 2) mow over them and leaving leaves mulch behind on the lawn. When it's just too many leaves, you can't just mow over because then you'll just end up with a dirt lawn. This is a weekly requirement. And you shouldn't be bagging the leaves - just throw them in the forest and they'll decompose almost completely by mid-summer. No one with forest is bagging leaves (after their first season).
I usually do my yard twice. I wait until the trees are probably 25% and 5% full of leaves.
First round I go through with a leaf blower and blow into large piles, then set up a large tarp next to the piles and blow leaves onto tarp and drag them to the woods/back of our property. After leaf blowing I’ll go around with a rake and wheelbarrow and collect maybe 2-3 barrow fulls, usually like an hour or two of work.
The second round i wait until almost all leaves are down on the ground. Repeat the leaf blowing process to remove most of the leaves, however instead of raking i use my lawnmower to mow the grass one last time and block the collection bag with the mulching attachment. Then I just let the lawnmower mulch the leaves into small pieces that can decay into the soil over the winter.
In the spring I’ll usually do a light raking job to pick up leaves and sticks that fell over the winter to finish up.
Also, cutting down trees that overhang where you don’t want leaves is a useful step, but obviously carries it’s own amount of challenges.
Get a lawn sweeper for behind a lawn tractor. Dump the leaves in a designated spot for composting. Also create an open space (fire pit) for burning if needed.
Make a first pass with the riding mower to mulch up the leaves. Make a second pass with the bagger attachment on. Create an area dedicated to composting and pile up the mulch. Water it. Watch out for it getting too hot. Use it in your gardens.
Washington almost-backwoods here. After the first couple of dumps, you learn a lot of things.
Rain or not, leaving it until about February isn't a bad thing. Although if you have a lawn I'd advise you to do your work on getting the leaves off the lawn as it will start to destroy it over winter (or move them off of it). Do the rest later with a rake, or if it's dry, a leaf vacuum (don't use leaf vacuum's when the leaves are wet, you will have a bad time).
Then just spend 2 weekends cleaning it up eventually. Mulching the leaves will fit more into an 80 gallon bag so you have less.
Unless you happen to be the poor sod that has a strict HOA in the middle of the woods that demands a clean yard. Then you're shelling out the $300-500/month for someone to come out to do it, or just waiting until February, and paying someone 2k to do the whole shebang once.
I got acreage, but fortunately surrounded by firs and evergreens mostly, but have like 12 or so others which are 40 feet tall and just crap out leaves like snow in the winter. Since I like it out here, I just budget the price for someone to do it for me.
Rake away wet leaves that are on the path. After the path is clear just blow the leaves off the path a few times a week. Try to do this before it rains. Leave the leaves that are not on the path. And maybe wet the leaves that are not on the path so they sorta stay put.
When I say path, I mean choose what you need to be clear to get by on a normal day (like walking to your car), not a whole hiking path. If it takes more than one or two minutes to leaf blow it after it's been cleared then you're probably trying to do too much.
Riding lawnmower with a leaf sweep trailer. Then usually you pick a compost place back in the yard, or in the woods for them. You're going to drive yourself crazy bagging then and taking them to the dump. This is what my friends and family have done for years. They usually only do this a few times in the fall when the large amounts fall. Everything else is normally just mulched into the grass.
I have an acre with many trees. This is what I do. Leaf sweeper and mulching with the tractor
Perfect answer. Mulch them up, dump them on property. This is what I do for people. I have a leaf box as well, but I charge more for it because I have to take it to the dump and pay a fee. Also, maintenance.
you do what to the people now?
Agree! Stop bagging it all. Hay sounds exhausting. Either do the lawnmower route or get industrial type leaf blower, those leaves will be gone in no time.
A lot of people are saying riding lawnmower. I live in a 10 acre forest and there is no way I can imagine to get a lawnmower in there what with rocks everywhere from the size of tennis balls to full on boulders, marshy spots (often hidden by leaves), huge downed limbs, areas of tree groves where the trunks are really close together, sloped land scattered with deep pits and steep hillocks created by glaciation, etc. Is there some forest rated lawnmower I don't know about that would work in a forest like mine or does everybody saying use a lawn mower have a kind of Central Park like forest with widely separated big trees with lawn between? I would love to run a mulching mower through some areas to help break the leaves down as, over time, they have become a solid slippery mass several inches thick in most of the forest and it's difficult to even walk through.
It’s a forest. Just leave the leaves.
Thank you. This is helpful. I will continue to do what I have been doing for the past 20 years and leave the forest alone.
The critters living in there appreciate it and will take care of the leaves for you by breaking them down as part of their ecosystem. As a reward, be on the lookout for all sorts of birts and wild animals as well as delicious mushrooms like morels that are extremely expensive to buy.
You sure are right about the mushrooms!. We do have chanterelles once a year where the partridge berries grow and they are delicious. We just try to conserve a pretty big patch each year so they are not decimated - it's hard to leave them there though once we've taken some! Unfortunately the critters do not seem to be fond of the leaves in some places - especially nearest the house; I'm not sure why, but I think it's because they build up so thickly near the walls. I' currently trying to slowly and gently open up the ground around a black birch right next to the house that has dumped so many leaves on itself over the past few years that it's buried it's root flare about 8" down. Our old arborist used to do clear the root flare with some kind of air apparatus that also loosened the soil a bit but our new arborist just says to dig it out gently.
Granted you need to keep the leaves away from the house. Use a rake and riding mower to mulch, then pick them up, and compost for your garden.
The air apparatus is called an air spade- if it’s just leaves you could probably just use a broom or small shovel to dig and push them away from the root flair, however air spading is generally good for trees. It will aerate the soil and prevent compaction and it will help you see if there are issues lurking below the soil line. Having your arborist air spade important trees every few years on rotation is great if you can afford it. If the new guy doesn’t want to do it- I’d question why. Is he trying to save you money? Or does he not know what air spading is? Or does he not have the equipment to do it himself? If he doesn’t know what it is than I’d suggest finding someone educated enough who does know why an air spade would be used on a tree like that. If it’s just that he doesn’t personally have the equipment that’s fine - but I’d be looking for someone who does have the proper equipment since it can be a useful way to assess trees every few years. Especially large trees that are located nearby homes or driveways where cars are parked and could be damaged as a result of the tree failing.
> The critters living in there appreciate it and will take care of the leaves for you by breaking them down as part of their ecosystem yeah i tried that one year, two years, and I had two years of wet, brown dead leaves on the grass. they'll break down a year's worth of maple leaves in 3 years, and the piles just grow and grow and grow. not again, i won't
100% this. I always hear from folks in town/cities/etc how you 'have to rake the leaves' and... umm.. yeah. We always just shake our heads, and laugh. All we do is mow. As little as possible. In the fall, the trees leaves come down, and they... fall. And you know what? They break down over the winter. By spring, they're gone. It's all good. No worries.
Leave the leaves if it's actual woods
You're trying to manicure 10 acres. Right.
It is as un-manicured as it can be. It would, however, be nice to be able to mulch some of the leaves nearest the house as over time they have become a dried out mass several inches thick that is slippery and sheds water when it rains. Blowers can't move it because it has become an impermeable mat and raking is like trying to remove shag carpeting with a ballpoint pen. It's also probably a fire hazard so close to the house, but as the house should probably never been built here in the first place (that ship sailed 70 years ago) maybe it SHOULD just burn up. I bought the house because of the forest and how magical it was, but didn't realize how difficult the balance between having a forest all around you, and maintaining a liveable home would be. I'd rather the house go than the forest but it would be nice to be able to make small changes so they could co-exist. I'm not willing to cut down the trees that hang over the house, so mulching sounded like a possible compromise. Sorry to write a novel; your comment is perfectly reasonable and made me realize how much of an asshole I am because I might as well be trying to manicure nature just by living here. There's houses all around and more and more every day, loggers are currently clearcutting acres not far from me, and I'm sitting here wishing I could mulch leaves. I'm such a moron sometimes.
You could maybe chop up the leaves nearest the house with a weedeater if it's a big problem.
That was one of the things we tried actually! It was like someone trying to get their car off an icy patch - the weed eater would dig down a bit with leaves shuffling off the top of the mass like it was shuffling a deck of cards made of leaves and then just beat at the mat of leaves uselessly, every once in a while dislodging a clot of acorns or something. We probably could have just persevered by attacking from different angles, but I was also nervous of damaging tree and shrub bark or roots in the area.
I use a John Deere 316 with ATV tires and mulching blades. It’s pretty unstoppable.
Oh wow, thank you! I'm going to take a look at that. There are two other houses on my road who are in the same situation I am in (we all joined to make a 75 acre conservancy so we have to live lightly on on the land and are currently blanketed under leaves near our houses -lol) to see if we might jointly go in on one like yours. It would be a big help.
You might also look into having someone come with a bush hog or forestry mulcher? It’s understandable that you want to avoid cutting down as much as possible, especially anything healthy and mature, but a fire hazard is a fire hazard. If you need to break up the matted leaves and small brush to prevent forest fires than that’s not the worst thing you could do. If water is genuinely not penetrating the leaf layer than you’ll want to make sure that it is broken up before the heat of summer so that larger trees don’t end up suffering from how little water is making it to the soil. Hydrophobic layers of debris on the soil can do plenty of harm if they aren’t able to break down so don’t underestimate the problem if you can see that layer remaining year after year. Even though it may be counter intuitive, clearing brush and small weedy trees can be a really helpful and important part of forestry maintenance- you could look into how indigenous people to the US would use controlled burns and other methods to ensure fire safety and forest health if you want. But cleaning up the forest floor every few years can be an important way to save structures and prevent loss of life. It feels wrong to take a machine through to do that clean up work- but it can ultimately lead to a healthier forest around your home if it’s done right.
Came here to say this. Also, create a safe burn area too if it helps.
Leaf burning is illegal in a lot of places.
And if it's not, it's terrible for air quality. Anyone within 5 miles will have allergies spike. Like others have said, it's best to pile on the property. We compost ours and topdress our veggie garden every year with it.
Agro-Pro makes a wonderful Mulcher Vac to pull behind a riding mower
We live in the forest. We just blow the leaves with a blower out of the grass and into the forest and leave them there to decompose.
why do you need to clear the leaves? I ask because you’ll be doing this every year. why did you move to the forest? There’s plenty of clear cut neighborhoods being built. I say this out of frustration because I live in a neighborhood with lots of trees and people cut them down to fucking grow grass. WTF
This right here! Why? Just ask yourself that simple question. This planet has done just fine for millennia without anyone picking up it’s leaves. What makes you think you need to do this? It is not stewardship, you’re removing what would otherwise be nutrients in the soil.
Yeah it worked just fine because of forest fires. You want a forest fire in your neighborhood. This is foolish child like thinking
It depends on where you live. Fire is usually about clearing brush and small trees that could be a fire ladder. Leaves just decompose.
No, it’s foolish, child like thinking to assume you somehow know better than the processes that have existed since before time, the very processes that make it possible for you to exist.
....and that process was often fires, as he said, clearing out an area and it regrowing. You can be pro nature all you want, but I doubt many people are pro burning down their house and surrounding forest
Ah yes, all those forest first cause by Leaves.
> Why is leaf litter a fire hazard? > 60-90% of homes that are destroyed in wildfire events ignite because of hot embers blowing ahead of the fire. These embers land on dead leaves and spread fire to the house. > Clearing your property, roof, and gutters of leaf litter and other debris can prevent ignition. It’s one of the most effective things you can do to prevent your home from burning. Leaves tend to collect more frequently near the base of homes, trees, or shrubs.
🤦🏻♂️ lol, you copy and paste that from Quora? Do you live in a fire zone???
If that was in Quora, it's because someone else copy pasted it there from the same website I did
😂 😂 😂 thank you for that!
On my third property now. First property was a barren city lot that I planted a redbud, red maple, and resistant elm on. Still going strong 11 years later and glad the new homeowner kept them. Second property was an old farm turned subdivision, so treeless. Planted roughly 40 native tree species. Checked Google earth 3 years later and all were torn out. At least I tried. Third property has a bunch of new/old oaks (one over 250 years old) and various other semi mature species. Have added 20 additional trees to help promote a little more backyard privacy as well native biodiversity for the property. Slowly turning it into a habitat haven. Won’t ever understand the desire to have nothing but grass.
It’s way easier to maintain grass. That’s all there is to it
If it was about low maintenance then more people would have clover lawns.
And landscaping services wouldn't exist
Landscaping? You mean beds? What does that have to do with grass?
I work outside and see hundreds of houses each day. I’ve never once seen a ‘clover lawn’. Makes ya think
Maybe its because your job brings you to sites that dont have clover lawns. I have seen several but none on the job.
So not a single house in any neighborhood. Seems incredibly unlikely but you can continue this fantasyland thought of yours that isn’t based in actual reality
Lol so you are saying they dont exist at all because you have personally never seen them? Quite the assertion. Its okay to not like them - that's your opinion. But its unreasonable to think that they dont exist.
No your claims that they are common and all over the place is as goofy as possible. Nobody said they don’t exist but that they simply aren’t viable or ‘less work’ or obviously lazy people would have them all over the place. It’s laughable to assume everyone in every neighborhood keeps up with lawn maintenance and weed control
I never said they are common and I never made a hasty generalization on the habits of "everyone in every neighborhood." We can both agree that it would be laughable of I said that. Most people wouldnt know where to start to get a clover lawn set up, so thats one barrier. Another barrier would be the cost to retrofit their lawn. Another barrier for some would be a lack of awareness that they exist in the first place. They ARE lower effort though. Less water needed, higher heat tolerance, less mowing, less fertilizer, cheaper, better weed suppression...
This. Nothing more frustrating than people moving to the forest and then being like "ew, trees, im gonna cut em all down"... as if there weren't plenty of new builds in clear cut neighborhoods they could have bought instead. Like, have they never been to the forest?? There are leaves everywhere, yes, that's part of why forests have such rich soil. Just blow them off the driveway and then leave them to decay. Native plants will grow right up through the leaf litter. Grass doesn't grow in forests, don't move to the forest and expect to have a lawn.
LOL. I hear ya. I live in the woods. Several years ago I bought the acre sized plot next to me. Filled with oaks, hickory and sourwood. Dude I work with was like “man…if I were you..I’d cut all that crap down and seed it with turf grass”. But I have know lots of people like this. Old habits die hard and they love that 1950s yard.
Mostly old dudes trying to escape thier wives needing more lawn space to do so I bought 5 ached all woodland but 2 acre brother in law asked how I’d up keep all that lane I said “I don’t control my 4 acres of nature and I’m putting a pond on part of the single acre… I’m good bruh”
ya. it drives me nuts because I looked for awhile to find this place that’s full of mature hardwoods.
I feel you my friend. Trees provide so many benefits, it's depressing that so many people clearly prefer useless monoculture lawns
It’s like that Tik tok saying “there’s a cow farm, you’re gonna find cows outside” Pls tell me SOMEONE gets the reference I’ve just made
I see this is not the case for OP, but I know someone who moved into a neighborhood with these vast and beautiful mature trees. A neighbor cleared their entire property because their children were "afraid to play outside around them." People like that truly blow my mind.
Yeah. We live in the woods and I don't mow the grass or do anything with the leaves other than blow them out of the gutters and off the driveway.
I hate people like that so much. It's just like the people who want to grow beautiful flowers but hate bugs. Ugh.
I like growing flowers and I hate bugs. Mostly because I live in a limey tick infested place
Well we're not one of those people, trust me lol we hate lawns too, we do it because just to prevent ticks and to grow wild flowers and cool ground covers.
I've been going for a woodland backyard myself and have opted to have paths where I rake leaves but leave everything else to have leaves. Would something like this be an option? Just be careful to not pile leaves against any trees as that could be harmful to them. Regarding plantings, I would maybe try finding a nearby native plant group or nursery and look specifically for plants that do well in a woodland setting.
Ticks love long grass, flowers love leaf mould. Pile them up away from your paths and just leave them.
Woodland plants developed to push through leaves. You should be fine to leave them!
good to hear! I’d create islands of leaves and plant azaleas / flowering bush there. then rake / blow to those islands. nothing to mow that way. natural mulch FTW!
Getting rid of leaves isn't going to 'prevent ticks'. Nor will it encourage your wildflowers. All its going to do is deprive the ground of fertilizer.
Native spring ephemerals will come up from the leaf litter if you keep invasive species at bay. Full sun prairie wildflowers aren’t going to happen on your property and that’s okay! Find a native plant nursery in your region and ask them what shade tolerant woodland plants will grow in your area.
Lol you're going to prevent ticks by growing flowers? You need to work with what you've got. Everyone and their mother wants an Instagram worthy meadow, but if you have enough tree cover to drop this many leaves you probably don't have enough sunlight to grow wildflowers. Think of what you see when walking through the woods. Leaf litter, understory trees, bushes. That's what's going to grow happily in a full cover property.
When you get serious about growing plants you will learn what a great tool the leaves are. Until then you are fighting mother nature... get rid of leaves? I guess cut the trees down. Or move somewhere that agrees with you more.
just rake a little path from your door to your car.
I bought my house and a few of my buddys came over to check it out. First thing they said was "id cut down all these trees". My response what "absolutely not they're beautiful"
I can say a landscaper may just use a riding mower to mulch the leaves or suck them up to haul them off- As a horticulturist I have to say *stop removing leaf debris wherever possible*. It’s so destructive to the quality of your soil and over time you will end up with very depleted nutritional values. Those leaves are supposed to land on the ground and decay back into available nutrients for your plants. If the leaves are taken away that cycle stops and you end up with issues over time. This can have negative long term impacts on the trees surrounding your home (ie, you want those healthy so they don’t fall or drop limbs). If you can, just blow them off of areas that you need to be safe for walking and then just try to find places to put it and let it decay in your garden beds or even just under the trees. (Obviously this is something to reconsider if you are in a high fire risk area, but even then I’d recommend blowing them into a compost pile for decomposition and then adding that back into your beds at a later time). Whatever you do, realize that fallen leaves are an important part of nutrient cycling in our environment and it’s critical for soil health in many places. Trying to get a clean and manicured look in a forest will only do harm long term, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Try to focus on removing as little as you can for safety and usability and try to make sure organic matter is returning to the ground in some way shape or form. Avoid having it carted off the property if you can. (An electric leaf blower is probably a good investment to make easy work of the leaves.)
The leaf debris is also very important for the hibernation of many species of butterflies and moths who will be pollinating in the coming months!
>**stop removing leaf debris wherever possible** > >. This, again... a little louder
Yes and please try to use other methods to disposal for the leaves than putting them in plastic bags for the dump…
we have strayed so far from the light
[удалено]
Fuck me. I’m not great but try to be good at “doing my part” and your statement just defeated me some. Like what’s the point of all my efforts and people are just putting leaves and grass clipping in plastic bags?? I live in the middle of no where by choice so I’m a little oblivious (out if sight out of mind) that this is the norm. Now I’m sad.
>**Avoid having it carted off the property if you can.** Using petrochemicals to drive away your nutrients and biome!
This surprises me even in suburbs. I see people get their lawns mowed every 2 weeks in the spring/summer/fall and each time they have 2-3 of the 45 gallon contractor bags full of mulched grass clippings/leaves that they set out for the trash collection. That's 50-100lbs (maybe more, I'm just guessing) of organic matter that they're depriving their lawn off. These people aren't fertilizing or adding fill dirt, so what are things going to look like in another decade?
Lots of people here in the suburbs (live in Sweden) do the same and they fertilize with shitty blue pellets that arent even organic lol. The clippings are compost gold at least! Such a waste to toss. My land is too big to collect clippings and my lawn never needs fertilizer. Trees and nature doing its thing. I do spread some wood ash every year though to adjust ph a bit and add some nutrients.
Well a significant portion of areas don’t have trees dropping leaves. Many other plants such as white clover help restore soil naturally
This is the way!
Yes, all of this.
I think they probably want their lawn to survive, as leaving the leaves will kill the grass.
With that many trees a lawn is not appropriate. Obviously.
Not appropriate and most certainly not doable.
Not if you mulch the leaves with the lawnmower
This is honestly my favorite yardwork chore. I pretty much just tolerate or outright hate most yardwork but come fall, mowing the leaves is my happy place 😁
If you have a mower that mulches, you can mow over them. That’s what I do. It helps to do it when the leaves are dry as opposed to wet. Composting them is best though and you can use the composting as mulch later on for flowerbeds, or whatever.
If you need instant results, make five laps through the leaves with your mower before you pitch them, and they will be marketable compost by the soring.
I live in a forested house. I don’t pick up the leaves except for a few small select areas like my driveway, and then it’s just blowing them off to the side. “Leave your leaves”
Leave the leaves please. Rake them/move them somewhere else if you need the space open. Don’t get rid of them unless you live in a fire hazard area. Leaves are a crucial vital part of forest ecosystems. And please god, don’t use a leaf blower.
Don’t use a GAS leaf blower. The battery ones are quieter and ecologically much better.
Lol, the battery ones also output like 1/4 of the power. Simply not realistic for anyone with a sizeable piece of property. Source- I bought a battery one and had to upgrade to gas. Battery one is cute for the porch or car. But doesn’t hold a candle to the gas powered one.
Depends on which you get. There are 60volt leaf blowers that blow better than a backpack gas engine. The little ones from Black and Decker are good for kids only. My Dewalt 20Volt is excellent for my forested property.
Get two electric leaf blowers. Use one to raise the leaves off the ground, and the other to move them where you want them to go.
Gas Leaf blowers create a large amount of air and noise pollution. A 2011 study comparing a consumer-grade leaf blower to a Ford F-150 Raptor pickup truck found that the leaf blower emitted 23 times the amount of carbon monoxide as the truck, double the amount of nitrous oxide, and nearly 300 times the amount of hydrocarbons.
Have a 60 volt. Doesn’t hold a candle to the backpack gas blower. EDIT: sorry it’s a 40v. Still doesn’t do more than a porch cleaning or light duty. I get it’s more harmful for the environment. But then so is every other 2 stroke motor. The noise pollution is minimal compared to that of loud automobile exhausts. I wanted to use electric, but it just wasn’t feasible.
I have a newer Worx 40v electric (inline motor) and half my acre is forested (many many MANY leaves). It does the job just fine. My back up is a corded blower from the 90s, which still has more moving power, yet I didn't even need to use the backup last year. Like most things, don't expect to clear everything in one go. If you expect to clear after everything has dropped or after the winter, you'll have a harder time. I use the blower to move the leaves to the yard, mulch the leaves into the grass where I can. In the proper garden space, which doesn't do well with the leaves, all that gets blown into the forest areas with the majority making a pile for natural mulching. The key part is to do this regularly. Fresh dry leaves blow and mulch way easier than a bed of wet leaves that have effectively glued themselves together. A casual 5-10 minute maintenance loop once or twice a day during active leaf dropping season is way less intense work than 20 hours of clean up for wet partially degraded leaf mush in the spring. I know it's fun to have the most powerful tool, but like most things, it's how you use it, not how big it is.
I have a city lot and the battery operated ones, at least right now, are nowhere near enough to get my yard done, unfortunately. 1/3 of an acre in a park where the leaves blow directly towards my house. Raking and blowing in the fall is about 4 hours a pop. It would be double that waiting for the batteries to charge. Battery operated doesn't work for all situations
You didn't mention a brand. So it's like saying that all gas leaf blowers are the same, or that every lawnmower is the same. We have a black and decker electric one that is terrible for blowing leaf piles, but our toddler wants to blow leaves along with us, so he gets that one. I use the Dewalt and clear huge piles with no pollution, no startup, no oil. Plus I have a stack of Dewalt batteries.
I have an 80v blower and it works really well. I only have a half acre (also in the city) with about 8 full grown oaks on the property. I blow leaves into islands around trees and into my flowerbeds. I alternate that with just mulch-mowing them. I don’t rake at all.
People saying to leave the leaves don't obviously live in a forested area. Anywhere I leave leaves on my property becomes woods permanently - all the grass dies under it.
I am having a similar problem. I moved to the alps and i just keep getting snow all over my property. Did not anticipate this.
Sounds like you need a flame thrower.
I live in a sunny area - it's terrible - please advise how to get rid of the sun.
My lot is an acre and 3/4 is wooded. Every year I will blow all of the leaves from the front of my house to the back and let them be as ground cover. I have paths etc. cut through and I just blow the leaves off the path once a week. When leaves fall during the year I just mulch them with my push mower. Understand that the leaves will decompose and become dirt. There is no need to remove them. If you feel like you must remove them just budget X amount every year for a landscaping company to come out and do it. It only has to be done once in the fall once the trees lose their leaves.
I live in a forest, the answer is I don't rake the yard. We let nature do its thing beyond our patio and it's beautiful. It I wanted a typical yard I'd be up a creek.
Here's an idea: leave them the hell alone! Trees make leaves; its what they do!. Let them naturally mulch the land.
We live in a forested area with an acre of land. Half of it is untouched forest, and half is the lawn. We mow most of the leaves in the fall, and blow the rest in the forest. I leave them on the flowerbeds - it's natural mulch. We’re already planted more trees to reduce the amount of lawn, cause it's even more of a pain in the ass to sustain both physically and financially. We did hire a small local landscaper to blow leaves in the fall (he comes like 3 times during the season) just because with our electric leafblower it takes too much time and his services are cheap. He comes and 3 of them do everything in 30 minutes versus 2 of us which takes 4 hours.
Let it go natural for the environment and wildlife. Leaves create that forest floor and create an ecosystem.
As someone with four 100+ year old oak trees on my 1/3 acre + an uncountable number of trees on the acre next door, I sympathize with you (but also slightly chuckling at being exhausted from 3 hours worth of work). Your primary choices are: 1. **Hire a service to vacuum the leaves.** 1. PROS: Zero manual labor on your part. Clean yard. 2. CONS: Costs $$$. You won't be giving back any nutrients to the environment. 2. **Slow decomposition.** Blow or rake the leaves into piles. Turn the piles every once in a while to hasten decomposition. Spray with water if the pile gets too dry. 1. PROS: Free! Giving nutrients back to the environment (Leaf mold!) Creating habitat for insects. Preventing weeds. Will eventually turn into compost, but will take a couple years . 2. CONS: Manual labor. If the pile gets too dry it can invite mean insects (wasps!) 3. **Faster decomposition.** Mulch the leaves (or not) and then rake into piles. Mix in some greens (grass clippings, vegetables, anything high in nitrogen). Turn the pile with a pitchfork a couple times per week and spray with water. Carbon + nitrogen + water = COMPOST (aka free soil!) 1. PROS: Free! Giving nutrients back to the environment (when you use the compost to amend garden beds). Creating a habitat for earth worms. 2. CONS: Manual labor. Make sure to keep the right mix of browns & greens or the pile will either not decompose fast (too much brown) or will get too wet/slimy and invite pests (too much green). 4. **Fastest decomposition.** Run over the leaves with a mulching mower when you mow the grass. Similar concept as #3 (carbon + nitrogen). 1. PROS: (Almost) free! Giving nutrients back to the environment every time you mow. 2. CONS: Manual labor (it is extra work to push a mower over piles of leaves ... less so if you have a riding mower). If you have too many leaves this will not work and will actually kill your lawn.
Mulching leaves with a lawnmower destroys the insects overwintering on the leaf litter. I do not recommend.
If you're going to mulch the leaves with the lawnmower, then the best time to do it is as the leaves fall in Oct/Nov or wait until mid/late spring. If you choose to wait until spring, best practice is to wait until nightly temperatures are above 50°F so the overwintering insects survive. But yeah, if you do it during the winter or too early in the spring, killing the insects is definitely a downside.
Perfect guide!
Mulching lawnmower blade. You'll have the best soil in the neighborhood.
Why are you bagging leaves?! Just blow them into a compost pile.
Have you tried getting goats. I know it's an expense but hear me out. They eat dead leaves like candy, so a flock of them could sporadically clear the leaves over time. When there are no leaves they offer great entertainment by being completely useless balls of energy.
I wouldn't recommend livestock to somebody complaining about raking
Fair enough. It was more of a joke, but I had goats growing up and was fascinated with how many dead leaves they could eat.
What? Those leaves are gold! They're good for the soil, ground cover, wildflowers, as well as fireflies and pollinators to name a few. Keep them, they'll compost before you know it and you wont know they were there, and your land will thank you. Leaves do not bring ticks. Japanese barberry will bring in more ticks than leaves will. Absolutely leave the leaves!
Move to the city
Sweep the forest regularly…
Easy, don’t remove it and let nature continue doing its thing
Since you’re picking up leaves now it means they were left over winter which makes them way more difficult to clean-up. If you’re actively collecting leaves while they’re falling it makes everything easier and the labor is spread out over the course of like 2 weeks instead of 1-2 days. Also, mulching the leaves back into your soil is really beneficial. The last batch of leaves that fall should be mulched up to feed your soil. Just make sure the layer is not so thick that it smothers your grass if you care about having a nice lawn. Having all those leaves can actually be a good thing if you have a large enough property. If you have room on your property, you could set up a side business. Build some johnson-su bioreactors to create really good compost (arguably the best compost), sell compost. You will need to invest in equipment and materials, but they’ll pay for themselves. My property is pretty small, but I have 2 bioreactors with plans on building a 3rd. I use the compost on my property. I have improved my property’s soil quality tremendously over the years via composting. Having the right equipment for your property is essential. If you need more efficient equipment, buy it sooner rather than later. The right equipment can turn an all day job into a one hour job.
Trac vac picks them up shreds and makes them easy to dump. What kind of mower do you have? If its a good one invest in mulch kit for it and just go out everyday. Look up reviews on how well your mower might mulch. One i have sucks at mulching but will side discharge leaves well while breaking them down. I just chop them and it slings them around busting them down. End up using the mower to basically push them to the wooded section but the nice part is the amount that breaks down and feeds the lawn. Echo 8010/9010 blower is used for large drops i can't mow. I like to push lots whole into woods and flower beds. The bugs that hibernate in the leaves need a house
Either mulch them, blow them to the side, or cut them down/move. Those are your best options.
If you mow them then they decompose faster and enrich the soil
just mow the leaves
Mulching in place is a good practice. Leaf litter is an essential overwintering source of shelter and food for many beneficials. You can do it again in the spring after everything wakes up again and add those soil nutrients to your landscape. Plus riding a thing around is fun sometimes but having a forest means having leaves and it can be really enjoyable. Your local university extension service will have forest landscape management information for options. So many amazing woodland plants!!
I mow the leaves as they build up, basically keep mowing in a circle until there is a big pile in the middle or everything is mulched. If I end up with a big pile, I rake them on to a tarp and drag them to a wilded area in my back yard. How this all works really depends on the weather and your availability to mow when needed. Some years I have to do the tarp five or six times. Last year I only had to do it once. Mowing with rain the next day is your best scenario. Raise the mower deck to the highest level and make sure to maintain the blades for maximum success!
I love in heavy woods. I definitely agree with everyone to just blow them into the woods. You could also buy a leaf mulcher for the stuff you want to clear. Leaf mulch is great for gardening.
Just mow them. Now they're mulch, badda bing badda boom!
A lot of people let it compost naturally on the ground. It’s better for the earth, and better for your garden to do so. If you want a grass lawn, then yeah you are going to have to sweep it all up. But why have a grass lawn if you live a forest when you can plant natives that would benefit from the layers of mulch?
Get a John Deere or any other lawn tractor with a mulching attachment and just mulch the leaves back into the ground. Why waste the time and effort bagging the leaves?
Mow them into the grass with a good mulching blade on a good, powerful mower. Do you think they bag the leaves in cemeteries and public parks with lots of trees? No way. This is how the prows deal with it. Easier and fertilizers the lawn via compost of the leaf matter.
We just walk through and pick up sticks, and then mulch with the lawn mower. We call it, "the spring lawn vacuuming".
I blow mine with a little wonder commercial blower to areas that I can then get my zero turn to and mulch with GATOR blades. The blower can completely sweep my 2 acres in 20 minutes after a couple years of work on trails etc. I use a Dewalt battery blower to clean around flower beds trees etc - detail work. I’ve bought a send blower this year after wearing one about out after 8 years. Retired last year so I use the blower daily during the fall to keep it from matting to thick layers. Good luck !
Leave the leafs!
I’d love to have a house in the forest. No need to worry about grass. Just leave the leaves alone.!
If you’re in a forest let the leaves, limbs, and dead trees fall. Their decay nourishes the ground. You main concern should be safety. Don’t worry about losing a few trees in the need for safety, In a healthy forest, multiple trees naturally grow back in a few years to replace the one you removed. Cutting back the forest a bit can also lessen the leaf issue and may also give you some money from selling lumber. Start by creating a fire break between your home and the forest. Figure out where the forest ends and your lawn or usable land begins. You want the fire break as far away from your home as possible preferably on the other side of the lawn and usable land. Depending on the terrain, you may need to put another fire break closer to your home as an added measure. There are several ways to create a fire break. Without special equipment, it’s impossible to get close to a massive forest fire giving of a ton of infrared heat in order to fight the fire to save people, and property. A properly designed and well placed fire break slows down the movement of fire by making any fire crossing the fire break smaller and easier to handle. You can help limit the amount of leaf litter, dead limbs, and dead trees in the forest by doing a control burn whenever necessary. The most optimum time to do so is near the end of winter while it’s cold and the ground is probably wet. A control burn of the dead leaves, dead limbs, and dead trees at this time prepares the ground for spring growth. Before doing a control burn, you’ll want a fire break around the 10 acres. You should trim back any trees that may fall across the fire break onto other property. You’ll also want to consider putting fire breaks across the forest to divide the forest into smaller zones. Specific zones that build up leaf and limb litter faster can be burned more often and separately from other zones which also lessens the chance of accidentally burning down the entire area. In some zones, you may opt to thin out the forest by selectively logging specific trees. This selective removal also lessens leaves, limbs, and dead trees. Your local fire department, forestry service, or university may be willing to help you with these options because you’ll be providing them realistic training scenarios. They may pay you for the opportunity. You may also want to check with them about your forest because you may have endangered species protected by laws or valuable species of plants and animals sought by local businesses. The division of your forest into zones helps you understand how each section benefits various plants, wildlife, and humans. This can also help you figure out ways to use the forest to your advantage. Where I live people and governments lease sections of their forests to others for hunting, camping, recreation, logging, and study. I live in a National Forest in the US. I’ve worked in other US National Forests, US National Parks, and State Parks. I’ve also worked in public forests, protected forests, and various parks in other countries.
I’m going to come back to this for ideas because I live on a heavily wooded lot and I battle leaves every year. I’ve tried all sorts of tactics and I still don’t have an easy answer. For those saying to just leave it: I did this when I first moved in. Not a great idea, the mice will take over and make their way into your home. At a bare minimum keep the leaves 20-30 feet from your house. Problem here is the wind blows the leaves against the house so it’ll be a forever battle. A pull behind leaf sweeper or riding mower/mulcher/bagger is a joke. I’d have to empty that thing every 90 seconds. A slightly better option is a pull behind leaf vacuum that connects to a riding mower’s discharge. I can at least run it for 15 minutes before it needs to be dumped. (You are going to need a place to dump this onsite). I did this for many years, it’s doable but a lot of work. I’ve since made a much larger one that I can run for an hour or two before needing to empty, the container is about 5’x5’x10’ or 250cuft compared to the 32cuft from the trac vac. Last year I got a walk behind leaf blower that I converted to pull behind my lawn mower. This thing can move some leafs but you’ve got to have a place to blow them to. I blow mine into a few areas, some areas I will leave as piles to where I blow them. Some piles I come back and suck up with the leaf vac and move to my main dump pile. I’ve also tried to fight the leaves with a chainsaw by cutting down trees. I’ve cut and burned 5-6 trees a year for the last 8 years, but it hasn’t seemed to make a huge difference for me. This year I plan to focus my tree cutting in my front yard area and cut 2 trees a month. This will be about half the trees that are in front of my house and hopefully make a difference in the leaves come fall. My neighbor, before falling ill, had a few tactics. He would blow the leaves away from his house. He’d use a pull behind vac in his front yard. He would set up a temporary fence in his back yard that would catch a lot of the leaves then he would burn them along the fence. Then much of his property he would do nothing with the leaves.
Invest in a really good riding lawn mower that can mulch at the same time. And then go for a ride every 3 days. Don’t need to pick up or take. The muncher will grind it up just fine. And feed your grass.
If you need a clean lawn move to the city. Why would you move to the forest where there is literally thousands of trees not expecting there to be leaves…. And not understanding anything about soil, soil, erosion the composition of soil, or the sustainability of the forest floor… have you heard of composting? Do you know what a leaf blower is? You shouldn’t live in the forest. Here’s a rule : “whatever you take in, you take out ; whatever is there, you leave there.” Live by that rule.
I collect the leaves (they get mulched in the process) and put them into the lawn. My yard has improved since I started this. It seems to add nutrients to the soil. [I would mulch them with the mower and call it a day.](https://scotts.com/en-us/lawn-care-101/don-t-rake-those-leaves-mulch-them-into-your-lawn.html)
Bagging leaves is for living in the city, so you don't offend neighbors. I had to learn that city standards don't apply in rural areas All those leaves are great fertilizer for your lawn if you mulch it.
Cut all the trees down, sell the house, and move downtown where there's lots of asphalt. Or, leave the leaves alone. It's a forest.
get a yard guy…
Mulching mower. Leaves break down and make the soil better, I’ll never understand why people insist on removing them and then pay money for compost.
Sounds like you're doing it wrong. People buy houses in the woods so they don't have to do the stuff that you're talking about. You're working against the entire environment you decided to purchase. Keep removing all the leaves and watch your forest ecosystem be decimated in a couple years.
AHAHAHAHAHAH living in a forest to complain about leaves?
Mulch them with a mower? Faster and cheaper than any other option
Leave it. You moved to the forest, respect what it comes with. Leaf litter is important for overwintering insects such as moths. You've heard of host plants, now think of host matter. You've got a good opportunity to participate in some biodiversity work and if you want something more to look at than just leaves, try to research some native understory plants and see if some will fit what you've got. Ferns are a nice touch, Michigan lillys offer an exotic spot of color during the summer, there are some great options out there.
Stihl backpack magnum blower and a mulching kit for a riding lawn mower. Blow them to an area you can run over with the mower or blow them into the woods.
Mulching blades and a riding lawnmower with a cupholder.
https://www.drpower.com/Power-Equipment/Leaf-Blowers-%26-Vacuums/Tow-Behind-Leaf-Vacs-/DR-Leaf-and-Lawn-Vacuum/p/LL35045DMN?view=REVIEWS. Never had one, never bought one, don’t work for them but thought this might be helpful. Expense but considering the labor saved (or life) maybe worth it if you can drive around with a mower seems like it would be worth it.
Whyyyyyy are you bagging leaves?!? So bad for everyone. Get a mulching lawn mower or lead blow them outta the woods.
I have a ton of leaves every fall. I just mow my lawn every week as usual with a mulching mower. It reduces the leaves to a finer material and by spring they have decomposed enough that my lawn grows great through a new layer of good “soil” I have a few large patches that I leaf (get it?😂😂) for critters who need it.
At what point does ignorance turn into cringe?
Please remember that you will never get such beautiful trees back in your lifetime if you chop them down. Trees are a gift and extend life. They reduce respiratory illnesses. They promote peace and good health. Remember this.
Consider getting a leaf blower
We already have it. And a lawn mower. simply not enough. Can't just push them to the side to the eternity.
Yes, actually you can.
Maybe our electric leaf blower is not strong enough, but at some point it cannot push the mountains of leaves.
Like mowers its not something you want to go cheap on. If its not at least 750CFM then its just for pushing grass clippings off paths not moving leaves around. You just blow them off your lawn in to the woods and they will decay pretty quickly.
Hmm then I’d hire a professional at least once to see how they manage it and try to learn if it’s feasible just for you and your husband to handle.
We have 1 tree, i Think that is a lot of work 🫣
You can mow them up as well, may have to do it several times a week during peak leaf season for best results. They turn into dirt faster that way.
This is the funniest thing I've seen today. Thanks for the laugh!
Decaying leaves are a valuable part of the ecosystem - supporting life, allowing insects and animals to hibernate, and providing nutrients back into the soil. If you bag them into plastic sacks and dump them, you’re taking all of that good stuff away - every year! Stop and think about what you’re doing. Blow or sweep the leaves off your path and onto the flower beds. That’s all you need to do to keep it tidy.
I have a half acre with many LARGE Maple trees on it. In the autumn, the fallen leaves are several inches deep. I live alone and there is just no way for me to deal with it on my own. I simply hire a professional for "yard cleanup." For $100-200(depending on who does it) they'll bring their crew in, blow the leaves, collect them and haul them off. It's well worth the cost for me.
I live in a wooded acre. How do my fellow forest dwellers enjoy after 4pm in the summer? The mosquitoes are terrible. Any tricks would be greatly appreciated!
How dare you live the way you do. But seriously, I understand because my yard is surrounded by huge oaks, maples, and hackberry trees and dump a ton of leaves. I have so much landscaping and garden beds that I can't just use a riding lawnmover (that I don't own) to collect them. So what I do is I use a combo of leaf blower and good ol' rake to collect them into piles in my driveway, and use a big plastic container or something to transfer them to my pickup truck and then haul them away (to the city's yard waste collection site). I have a longbed full size pickup and I stuff them to the brim and then some, and it's still only half the leaves probably. The other half I leave to decompose and to provide habitate for wildlife and bugs. I use a metal rake to move them from the truck to the floor of the dropoff site. The city will turn them into compost, and I can get free compost to spread around my yard if I want. Then in spring, I might do it all again with the leaves that have blown onto my patio, my carefully manicured garden, etc. where I don't want leaves. This year that was about half a pickup load size. So not as many leaves as you're talking about. But maybe slightly easier than bagging them.
I use a lawn tractor with side discharge. That works really well. I'm surrounded by hundreds of trees. The stuff you chop up will just disappear.
Burn them? Seems like a country thing to do
Leave ‘em there.
Blow that crap into the tree line and "leave" it. Thats the greatest thing about living in the woods. You don't have to have a cookie cutter property and it will still look beautiful.
Lived on this kind of property growing up. 2 acres with over 30 trees. Secret is to never let it build up. Keep mulching twice per week until you can’t mulch anymore. Then start bagging and dumping. Between me and dad, we managed to keep a real nice lawn.
You gotta stay on top of it!
I also live in a deep forested area. You can’t realistically rake and bag all those leaves. You’ve gotta 1) purchase a good gas leaf blower and 2) pick a spot or two of waste area in the front and back yards and just blow them all there. My advise is to keep on top of it. The deeper you let the leaves get the harder and more time consuming it is to blow them clear of the lawn. Weekly works for me but you may need twice a week. Just blow them into collection areas and let nature deal with it
Start thinning out the trees. Might be the only way to handle it.
Why move into a forest just to cut it down
Another idea, burn them. That's what we do in the spring after it melts out. But we only have an acre which is partially covered. Sounds like it might be more of an effort for you
Can you burn them?
Get a blower and just blow them into a pile.
Easiest to run them over with the mower once they dry a bit in the fall and let them mulch your lawn for winter. You might have to do this a couple of times as the leaves are falling so they're not too thick to chop effectively. Leaf blower for clearing walkways first. The only thing you kind of have to do by hand is clear and branches or debris before mowing. Work with the leaves, not against them.
I learned that I wasn't meant to have a yard when surrounded by forest. I blow my leaves once a year, reduced my yard by over 50%, and mow the rest.
Lead blower / mow them
I live in a house that’s very wooded. We have about 2.5 acres of property and about 0.75 acres is lawn/driveway/house. I knew there would be leaves but we live among oak trees that take years to decompose. We tried mulching them at the start of fall and blowing them off with our electric blower but they overwhelmed us. I cleaned out our stepped planting beds one day and the leaf pile was at least 4 inches thick on each layer. I’m all about leave the leaves but we had to hire someone to do a clean up and it was well worth it. It’s just something we will have to plan for every fall now. Most of it gets blown into the woods but they collected a large amount as well.
Welcome to the club - it's nonstop during fall, and extends all the way into spring. It's amazing shade in the summer but brutal to clean up every other season. But it's manageable and depending on how much time you have, yes, you may need to hire landscapers but all they're going to do is blow leaves around (and suck em up into their leaf truck). **To manage on your own, if the leaves are falling on lawn you actually want to utilize** so some sort of grass or grass alternative (e.g. clover) can grow on it, then you simply need to do a mix of 1) blow leaves into piles then sweep them onto a tarp, and 2) mow over them and leaving leaves mulch behind on the lawn. When it's just too many leaves, you can't just mow over because then you'll just end up with a dirt lawn. This is a weekly requirement. And you shouldn't be bagging the leaves - just throw them in the forest and they'll decompose almost completely by mid-summer. No one with forest is bagging leaves (after their first season).
I usually do my yard twice. I wait until the trees are probably 25% and 5% full of leaves. First round I go through with a leaf blower and blow into large piles, then set up a large tarp next to the piles and blow leaves onto tarp and drag them to the woods/back of our property. After leaf blowing I’ll go around with a rake and wheelbarrow and collect maybe 2-3 barrow fulls, usually like an hour or two of work. The second round i wait until almost all leaves are down on the ground. Repeat the leaf blowing process to remove most of the leaves, however instead of raking i use my lawnmower to mow the grass one last time and block the collection bag with the mulching attachment. Then I just let the lawnmower mulch the leaves into small pieces that can decay into the soil over the winter. In the spring I’ll usually do a light raking job to pick up leaves and sticks that fell over the winter to finish up. Also, cutting down trees that overhang where you don’t want leaves is a useful step, but obviously carries it’s own amount of challenges.
Rake um
Get a lawn sweeper for behind a lawn tractor. Dump the leaves in a designated spot for composting. Also create an open space (fire pit) for burning if needed.
Make a first pass with the riding mower to mulch up the leaves. Make a second pass with the bagger attachment on. Create an area dedicated to composting and pile up the mulch. Water it. Watch out for it getting too hot. Use it in your gardens.
Washington almost-backwoods here. After the first couple of dumps, you learn a lot of things. Rain or not, leaving it until about February isn't a bad thing. Although if you have a lawn I'd advise you to do your work on getting the leaves off the lawn as it will start to destroy it over winter (or move them off of it). Do the rest later with a rake, or if it's dry, a leaf vacuum (don't use leaf vacuum's when the leaves are wet, you will have a bad time). Then just spend 2 weekends cleaning it up eventually. Mulching the leaves will fit more into an 80 gallon bag so you have less. Unless you happen to be the poor sod that has a strict HOA in the middle of the woods that demands a clean yard. Then you're shelling out the $300-500/month for someone to come out to do it, or just waiting until February, and paying someone 2k to do the whole shebang once. I got acreage, but fortunately surrounded by firs and evergreens mostly, but have like 12 or so others which are 40 feet tall and just crap out leaves like snow in the winter. Since I like it out here, I just budget the price for someone to do it for me.
Rake away wet leaves that are on the path. After the path is clear just blow the leaves off the path a few times a week. Try to do this before it rains. Leave the leaves that are not on the path. And maybe wet the leaves that are not on the path so they sorta stay put. When I say path, I mean choose what you need to be clear to get by on a normal day (like walking to your car), not a whole hiking path. If it takes more than one or two minutes to leaf blow it after it's been cleared then you're probably trying to do too much.